Ground News Bias Checker

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Ground News Bias Checker: Uncover Media Bias on Firefox

Ground News Bias Checker is a Firefox add-on developed by a former NASA engineer. The extension reveals the political bias in online news articles and offers various perspectives on a single story. It overlays the bias data on your social media feed, provides access to bias data from over 50,000+ news sites, and compares coverage differences among sources across the political spectrum. The tool is user-friendly and designed to help readers see and understand the hidden bias in their news articles.

Add-on stats

Daily users: 4,416
98
Rating: 3.17
(29)
Version: 3.2.0 (Last updated: 2025-01-14)
Creation date: 2020-08-22
Weekly download count: 113
Firefox on Android: No
Risk impact: Very high risk impact
Risk likelihood:
Manifest version: 3
Permissions:
  • tabs
  • storage
Host permissions:
  • https://extension.ground.news/*
  • https://production.checkitt.news/api/*
Size: 535.25K

Other platforms

Ground News - Bias Checker (v3.2.0)
4.02 (52) 30,000
Not available on Android
Ground News - Bias Checker (v3.1.1)
3.80 (5) 9,734
Want to check extension ranking and stats more quickly for other Firefox add-ons? Install Chrome-Stats extension to view Firefox-Stats data as you browse the Firefox Browser Add-ons.

Add-on summary

Want a second opinion on the news that you’re reading? Try out the Ground News Bias Checker - a Firefox add-on bringing the power of the world’s first news source comparison platform to your desktop.

Whenever you read a news article, The tool enables you to objectively see the political coverage bias of any story on the internet, and easily access a myriad of different perspectives on that very same story. You can see if the story is receiving balanced coverage, or is only being reported by news sources on the left and right. As seen below:

We used advisory from journalists to inform the design and functionality of the extension but made it user friendly enough that the average newsreader can use it. Whether your routine is to check in on Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit, Ground News can uncover the hidden bias in your news feed.

The browser add-on can:

Instantly tell you the media bias distribution of any story (% of coverage from sources on the left, right and center). The bias data is overlaid on your social media feed so you never have to disrupt your news browsing to see the underlying bias. Give you easy access to media bias data and other perspectives when you read an article on over 50,000+ news sites. With only one click, the extension enables you to access an aggregation of how other sources are reporting on the story. From here, you can easily compare how headlines and coverage differ among sources from across the political spectrum.

Ground News is an entirely new way to read daily breaking news stories. Now, you can get it anywhere you are online. On your phone, tablet and desktop.

Developed by a former NASA engineer, Ground News has helped over 100,000 users fight biased news and adopt a more balanced news diet.

See more

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Firefox Browser Add-ons does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Great concept and idea for identifying bias in news articles
  • Offers multiple perspectives on news articles without having to browse many sites
  • User-friendly layout in the main site
Cons
  • Extension causes browser performance issues, including high CPU usage
  • Privacy concerns regarding data access and tracking browsing history
  • Multiple bugs and functionality issues reported by users
  • Requires broad permissions that users feel are unnecessary
  • Difficulty with logging in and retaining logged-in sessions
Most mentioned
  • Extension breaks formatting on certain websites like Reddit
  • Extension reportedly sends user URLs back to Ground News, raising privacy concerns
  • High CPU usage when running the extension on any website
  • Request for a whitelist functionality instead of a blacklist
  • Bugs that prevent saving citations and logging in properly
User reviews
The website is great but the extension just doesn't work. It breaks the formatting of pages on Reddit and even though I added reddit.com to the "Hidden Sources", it still appears on the page. Uninstalling until the devs fix this.

if this service is supposed to identify bias, then it's a huge fail. they also seem to be uninterested in correcting errors. it's certainly not worth paying for in my opinion.
by Car Moda, 2024-12-16

by Stephen B. Fleming, 2024-11-16
View all user reviews

Add-on safety

Risk impact

Ground News Bias Checker requires a lot of sensitive permissions. Exercise caution before installing.

Risk impact analysis details
  • Critical Grants access to browser tabs, which can be used to track user browsing habits and history, presenting a privacy concern.
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Risk likelihood

Ground News Bias Checker is probably trust-worthy. Prefer other publishers if available. Exercise caution when installing this add-on.

Risk likelihood analysis details
  • High This extension was recently updated in the past month. New updates may not be stable or safe.
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  • Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
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